Re-thinking Green Transitions

Young people are often cast as humanity’s last hope in the face of climate catastrophe. However, just 9% of British 18–24-year-olds believe that young people significantly input into climate decision-making, according to a 2023 YouGov Poll. Eco-anxiety, climate scepticism driven by online disinformation, and disillusionment with formal political institutions are feeding youth disengagement with environmental politics.

This project aims to further an alternative cultural politics of urban green transitions that brings young people to the heart of public and policy debates.

Through participatory research, we aim to:

• Engage young Londoners in imagining, narrating and debating green transitions in the physical and digital spaces of Islington.
• Work with policymakers at Islington Council to identify concrete pathways to bring young voices into policymaking and public debates around green transitions.
• Inform broader conversations on just and green urban transitions, including by developing a model for future participatory research exploring youth climate action in cities. 

Building on Islington Council’s recent Climate Panel, this project is delivered in collaboration with a team of young researchers in Islington and policymakers from Islington Council, our Project Partner. Our research questions, methods and outputs are developing in dialogue with our young researchers and their peers, and in relation to Islington Council’s ongoing work programmes, ensuring our findings resonate day-to-day.

Urban and digital ethnography – in sites from TikTok to contested low-traffic streets to Islington Climate Panel events – allow us to track the formation of young people’s imaginaries of local transitions online and offline. Creative visual methods will shape a participatory workshop with young people and policymakers and underpin our final output: a neighbourhood communications campaign complemented by policy briefs for Islington Council and local governments across urban Europe.